Why did the 800,000 Qin army sit back and watch the Qin Dynasty fall?

Mondo History Updated on 2024-03-06

In 206 BC, the Qin Dynasty, a powerful empire that once swept through Liuhe and dominated the world, came to an end in just over a decade. Historically, the Qin Dynasty had a huge army of 800,000, but at the critical moment when the Qin Dynasty was facing a critical moment of life and death, this once invincible army did not seem to play its due role, but chose to sit back and watch the collapse of the Qin Dynasty. This historical phenomenon has triggered in-depth thinking and discussion among later scholars.

After the Qin Dynasty unified the six countries, in order to consolidate its rule, it implemented a series of military reforms and built a huge standing army system, the core of which was the 800,000-strong Qin army. They not only participated in the heroic battles of the Unification War, but also an important pillar of Qin Shi Huang's implementation of the policy of centralization. Why, then, did such a powerful army fail to prevent the fall of the Qin Dynasty?

After Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries and established the Qin Dynasty, he implemented a series of harsh laws to strengthen the centralization of power. However, these harsh laws and heavy forced labor brought untold suffering to the people. Especially during the period when Qin Shi Huang was building the Great Wall, hundreds of people were forced to leave their homes and devote themselves to hard labor. They carried heavy burdens on their shoulders and trekked through mountains and rivers just to complete the emperor's majestic ambitions. This heavy burden has caused the people to complain, and social contradictions have become increasingly intensified.

After Qin II Hu Hai ascended the throne, his mediocrity exacerbated the ** within the ruling class. He was greedy for pleasure, wasted government affairs, and turned a blind eye to the sufferings of the people. His ** made ** people dissatisfied, and they formed parties for personal gain and competed for power. There was a miasma of smoke inside the court, and the people's hearts were lost.

In this turbulent environment, the Qin army, although outnumbered, was demoralized. The soldiers were exhausted and tired of war and servitude. They were deeply involved in various tasks such as border defense, civil strife and rebellion, and could not take into account the turmoil of the imperial court. In addition, corruption and collusion with the enemy army within the Qin army were not uncommon. This greatly reduced the combat effectiveness of the Qin army, and it was difficult to cope with the increasingly serious internal and external crises.

Therefore, after the unification of the six countries, although the Qin Dynasty was once brilliant, due to the harsh punishment and strict laws, heavy forced labor, and the ** within the ruling class, it eventually led to the fall of the Qin Dynasty. This once powerful dynasty has fallen into decay and demise in just a few decades. This has left us with a profound lesson: in order for a country to maintain long-term peace and stability, it must pay attention to the well-being of its people and strengthen internal unity in order to consolidate its political power and achieve national prosperity and stability.

In that turbulent era at the end of the Qin Dynasty, the flames of peasant uprisings spread rapidly like a prairie fire. The Qin dynasty's rule was crumbling in the midst of storms, and its main army was scattered across the country, making it difficult to assemble quickly to deal with this sudden crisis.

The success of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's uprising was like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, stirring up layers of ripples. Anti-Qin forces sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and they launched a fierce attack on the rule of the Qin Dynasty like hungry wolves. The Qin army was forced to run for their lives and put out fires everywhere, but they often took care of one or the other, and it was difficult to resist this anti-Qin torrent.

Especially when Liu Bang led the rebel army into Guanzhong, the situation was even worse. Zhang Han, the general of the Qin army guarding the pass, faced the fatigue of continuous battles and the serious attrition of troops, coupled with the suspicion and suppression of the imperial court, he finally chose to surrender to the Chu army. This decision opened the door of Guanzhong, and the rule of the Qin Dynasty lost the last line of defense.

In that turbulent era, the rule of the Qin dynasty was teetering in internal and external difficulties. The flames of the peasant uprising burned the whole land, and the rise of anti-Qin forces hastened the demise of the Qin Dynasty. And Zhang Han's surrender sounded the death knell for the fall of the Qin Dynasty. The once glorious Qin Dynasty gradually disappeared in the torrent of history and became the memory of an era.

In the later years of the Qin Dynasty, the dark cloud of decision-making errors hung over the empire, which became one of the key factors in the Qin army's inability to fully exert its combat effectiveness. Qin II, the emperor who had inherited the great cause of thousands of years, unfortunately fell into the treacherous tricks of Zhao Gao. Zhao Gao, the ambitious eunuch, blinded the second with sweet words, causing him to misjudge the battle situation at the front line again and again. In this context, the Qin army missed many good opportunities to turn the tide of the war, and even unjustly killed those generals who were loyal to the country at some critical moments.

These loyal people, who were supposed to be the mainstay of the Qin army, suffered misfortune because of Zhao Gao's slanderous words. Their departure made the Qin army lose its effective command and dispatch, like a flock of sheep that had lost their leader, looking confused and helpless on the battlefield. What is more serious is that the Qin army in various places was restrained by local officials, which made it difficult for them to form a joint force in the face of the rebel army. The Qin armies in various places fought in silos, and there was a lack of unified command and coordination, which undoubtedly weakened their combat effectiveness.

In such a situation, the army of the Qin Dynasty, once the invincible iron cavalry that swept through the six countries, has now become faltering and difficult to exert its due power. Their predicament was not only due to the loss of excellent generals and effective commands, but also because of the mistakes of the entire imperial court, which caused the entire army to fall into chaos and confusion. Such a Qin Dynasty was destined to decay and perish in the torrent of history.

Therefore, the reason why the 800,000 Qin troops sat idly by and watched the fall of the Qin Dynasty was not due to the weakening of the army's own strength or the loss of combat effectiveness, but due to the combined effect of a series of complex factors such as the shortcomings of the Qin Dynasty's own system, the intensification of social contradictions, the mistakes of military strategy, and the corruption of the ruling class. As part of the ruling apparatus of the Qin Dynasty, the fate of the Qin army was closely linked to the fate of the Qin Dynasty, and finally fell silent with the Qin Dynasty in the torrent of history, leaving us with profound enlightenment about the governance of the country and the decline of its strength.

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